Encantado
by Sulime
Summary: What exactly does it take to succeed at Hogwarts? Is it enough to have a strange accent, a technicolor pet, and detailed instructions from one's infinitely glamourous grandmother? What Loleta Tilev really needs to remember is that anything can happen at
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One 

It was 10:30 when Loleta Tilev's mother, Isabella, dropped her off at the King's Cross station in London to catch her train. Isabella didn't stay long, as she had to get back to their hometown for a business engagement.

Loleta checked her watch again. 10:31. The unfamiliar feeling of a watch on her wrist was another little weight on the bundle of nerves building up. Her maternal grandmother had tried to soothe her nerves by sending her lots of letters, all of them about her school and how to get around, and Loleta had read a particular one repeatedly that morning. As she stopped her trolley at the barrier between platforms nine and ten, she pulled it out of her trouser pocket.

If anyone knew how to get through Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in grand style as a foreigner, it was her grandmother, a formidably powerful and extremely charismatic witch. She knew it too, and had sent the series of letters marked with messages on the envelope like 'Do Not Open Until In The London Station,' and 'Do Not Open Until Inside The Castle.' Her grandmother's example would be a hard act to follow, more than fifty years later in 1993. Loleta sat cross-legged on the ground and read the letter:

_Dear Loleta,_

I have some advice for adjusting to the Hogwarts culture that I had to learn the hard way. You are a lucky girl to get this inside information from a friendly source, especially since it will be harder to start at your age. Consider this your first lesson: Do not worry about which house you are being sorted into unless the Sorting Hat deigns to propose Hufflepuff. Avoid Hufflepuff at all costs. They would make you into a pushover. Hufflepuffs are useful, to be sure, but trust me; you wouldn't want to be one. Your remaining choices are then Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, and Slytherin. You know, of course, that I was a Slytherin, so I would be able to help you the most if you ended up there-

Here, Loleta smiled. Her grandmother was obviously dropping hints.

_-but it won't be the end of the world if you aren't. The difference between the houses, querida, is what you are appreciated for. Hufflepuffs are appreciated for being nice. You can see the obvious problem with this. Gryffindors are appreciated for being brave, but there are not many opportunities to prove courage in the course of school, so that point is moot. Ravenclaws are noted for intelligence, and that is all very well, but Slytherins are appreciated (by other Slytherins at least) for power. All kinds of power; personal, magical, physical, and mental power are what make Slytherin the most unique and interesting house of them all. With that in mind, I will conclude this lesson by saying that the Sorting Hat is not solely influenced by your actual disposition. It is actually very dependent on a person's opinion. Here endeth the lesson._

Good Luck,

Tu abuela, Esperanza Corlito De L'Orage.

That is very informative, abuela, but you have not solved the problem of how to get on to train, thought Loleta. Her mother had not gone to Hogwarts, so she didn't know either. Loleta scanned the crowd for a sign of another witch or wizard. She checked her ticket again to see if she was late, but her mother, in a show of very odd behaviour, had gotten her there early. Where they lived, time was a very minor consideration in daily life. Loleta wouldn't have been at all surprised if her mother wrote to her later saying that she had forgotten her appointment and just sat on the warm, sun-baked roof with a book and some wine, but that was beside the point.

At the moment, Loleta's biggest problem was the mystery of the Hogwarts express. Luckily for her, the mystery was soon solved by watching a young boy with a trolley bearing an owl cage looked furtively around and ran towards the wall, after hugging his parents. Loleta was quite surprised when he disappeared through the wall. She sat up and pushed her trolley toward the barrier, at first walking, then at a jog. By the time she had gotten to the very solid looking wall, she was sprinting. She just hoped this worked; otherwise her pet would ignore her for weeks. As she rushed through the wall, she felt a brief rushing sensation. She stopped and opened her eyes, though she didn't remember at what point she had closed them.

The station was beautiful, but it didn't seem to embody her grandmother's descriptions at all. _Maybe it looks different to everyone who looks at it,_ she thought. It made a strange sort of sense to her. After all, anything was possible at Hogwarts. The station, furnished in sun-bleached stone like her own house, had a few people wandering around, but not many. She was somewhere in between the extremely early people and the chronically late types. Loleta looked at the clock. 10:38. She pushed her trolley to a compartment near the middle of the train and lifted off her trunk and her familiar's vented box.

"Let me help you with that," said a mild voice. Loleta turned to see a man in very worn robes smiling good-naturedly at her. He took one end of her trunk and helped her pull it on the train and into an empty compartment. He held out his hand to Loleta.

"You look awfully confused, are you a new student? I am your new Defence Against The Dark Arts professor, by the way. Remus Lupin is my name." Loleta shook his hand in a rather ladylike fashion, much like her grandmother would have.

"Yes, I'm new here. Loleta Tilev, glad to meet you, sir." Lupin looked bemused at her speech.

"I see, Dumbledore said something about a late student coming in. Where are you from?"

Loleta groaned inwardly. Here was a nice, decent, rather good-looking British man, and she could tell he was terribly confused by the way she talked. She felt like Napoleon Bonaparte must have felt being from Corsica and in a high-class French military academy; like a backward outsider.

"My mother and I live in Èze, sir," she replied. "That's near Monaco," she added helpfully, at his blank expression. Not many people got out to Èze, mostly because the main road in was hard to navigate and the foot trail was less than fun.

"That's interesting. Well, I hope you will find Hogwarts to your liking. I will see you in class." He left with his shabby briefcase to find his own compartment. Loleta sprawled on the seat. She lifted up one of her hands and examined it, to see if it was shaking from how nervous she was. It wasn't. She sighed with relief and took off her watch. She was on time, after all, and she hated wristwatches. She supposed she would need it again soon, but it was more like home to have it off. She would miss home, the cobblestone streets and the relaxed attitude toward everything but good food were wonderful, but going to Hogwarts, home to one of the most comprehensive wizarding libraries in Europe, was a chance to make herself great. She mused on this vein for a while, until a timid little voice interrupted her.

"Excuse me, but can I sit here?" asked a little red-haired girl. Loleta smiled at her and nodded. The girl sat down nervously. There was a silence for a while; Loleta was a little embarrassed about her accent. The girl spoke again. "I've never seen you around Hogwarts. Are you new?"

"Yeah. But I'm going to be in fifth year. I'm Loleta Tilev, pleased to meet you."

"Ginny Weasley. I'm a second year Gryffindor. Actually, I have two brothers in the same year as you, Fred and George. Might want to watch out for them, they can be horrible." Loleta grimaced.

"I'll watch my back. Are they in Gryffindor too?" she asked.

Ginny nodded. "Yeah, it's a nightmare sometimes. Why are you starting so late?"

"My grandmother wouldn't let mama send me until she thought the Defence program was worth anything. That didn't happen until this year, apparently. Is it true, though? Was it really Gilderoy Lockhart last year?"

"Yes, and he was a complete idiot. So, what house do you reckon you'll be in?"

Loleta shrugged, "If my grandmother has her way, Slytherin." Ginny blanched, and Loleta sat up, alarmed. "What's wrong?"

Ginny took a few deep breaths, then calmed down enough to speak. "You know that Slytherin is...bad, right?"

Loleta sighed; her grandmother had informed her about the Slytherin house stigma. "Depends. If you judge an entire house by a few people from it, then yes, I suppose it is. But my grandmother was there fifty years ago, and she is no dark witch."

Ginny's eyes widened. "She was there the first time the Chamber of Secrets opened?" she whispered.

"Ginny, don't be scared. I know it happened again last year, but she has been in touch with Dumbledore and they freed the poor girl who was...it was you, wasn't it?" asked Loleta. Ginny nodded and lowered her head. "Oh, you poor thing. It wasn't your fault. Don't judge yourself, and don't judge Slytherin because of all that." She tilted Ginny's head up. "In fact, I'll get Sorted there and prove to you that Slytherins are not all bad."

"You mean, you won't ignore me once you make friends somewhere else?" asked Ginny hopefully.

"Gods, no. With two older brothers, you must get ignored quite a lot of the time, so I won't."

"Six older brothers," corrected Ginny. "All Gryffindor."

Loleta stared at her. "Your mother must be an amazing lady," she said reverently. Ginny laughed, and the compartment door slid open to reveal one older brother out of six, with red hair just like Ginny and a shiny badge proclaiming him as 'bigHead Boy.'

"Hello, Percy," said Ginny. "This is Loleta, she's new here." Loleta looked at Percy and blinked. He was an uptight-looking, lanky redhead with freckles all over his skin, a thin face, and thick-framed glasses. Loleta was thunderstruck. He was pricelessly cute in his own way. She cast about for something to say.

"Er, hello. Someone seems to have altered your badge," she said, all the while mentally slapping her forehead. _Smooth, you idiot_, she thought derisively, and smiled nervously as Percy swore softly.

"Bloody Fred and George. Anyway, Ginny, mum wanted me to look after you, so I just wanted to check where you are. And, Loleta, was it?" he asked. Loleta nodded politely with a hint of a smile. "You haven't been sorted yet, have you?"

"No. Can you recommend a house?" she asked smoothly, finally recovered. Ginny looked bewildered for a moment, then caught on and looked very amused.

"Well, I'm a Gryffindor myself," said Percy proudly, "but Ravenclaw is a wonderful house too."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind," she said, with the twinge of annoyance that she hadn't met one person yet who recommended Slytherin. "Since you're Head Boy, maybe you could show me around sometime?" she asked, letting a piece of hair fall in front of her eye, the one that her mother dubbed 'the innocent lock' because if one looked mournfully up at someone while it was in place, one looked sweet and innocent. Loleta had taken this to heart and had practiced her lock placement and the slight pout that accompanied this expression. Percy turned a bit pink around the ears, muttered something and fled the compartment briskly.

Ginny giggled. "That was a dirty trick, with your hair," she said mischievously. "He has a girlfriend, though."

Loleta covered her mouth. "He doesn't," she said in disbelief. Ginny nodded. "So I have just made a bit of a hussy of myself in front of a taken man."

Ginny nodded again. "So it seems. Better luck with the rest of your day."

Loleta shrugged in the signature French fashion. "Ah well, that's my luck. At least you now have knowledge of one of the powerful hair tricks." The train had gained speed, and they were now moving through green countryside. "I will teach you more someday, you have very distinctive hair for it. Redheads are completely impossible to ignore." Ginny snorted.

"Not with my family. Everyone's a ginger nob, so we have to fight to be seen. Good thing I'm a girl, it makes me a little more distinctive."

"Hmm, I'll bet. What do you reckon that cloud looks like?" she asked. The game lasted until the puffy clouds were replaced by grey ones that heralded a storm. The refreshment cart came by a while later, accompanied by the good-natured, plump witch who was more than happy to help Ginny give recommendations on British magical sweets.

"Are there any that taste or look like mice?" Loleta asked.

"Well, there are some Every-Flavour Beans that probably taste like mouse. Here, get a sample bag..." said the trolley witch. "And Ice Mice are good for the squeaking effect, the Chocolate Frogs move, so that's good for a laugh." Loleta paid for all three and the witch moved on to the compartment ahead of them. Loleta set the bags down and took the vented box off the seat next to her.

Ginny looked at her oddly. "That your cup of tea, then? Mice?" Loleta rolled her eyes.

"Oh yes, Ginny. Down south we have discontinued truffles and frog's legs in favour of mice," she said sarcastically. "My familiar, she loves anything mouse-related."

"What is it?" asked Ginny excitedly. "Lee Jordan, Fred and George's friend, he had a tarantula for a while."

Loleta smirked. "Prepare to be amazed."

She pulled the lid off the box, and Ginny gasped. "You have a snake?!" Loleta nodded. "And it's pink?" Another nod. "How?"

"Well, my grandmother decided to plant yet another subliminal message to go for Slytherin. At first she could only be green or silver, but my mama and I worked together on charming her into other colours every time she shed her skin. Her name's Viola, and she's a boa."

Ginny looked thoughtful. "By first impression, I would say that keeping a snake is a little on the dodgy side, but she's so...pink. Pink things just aren't that evil." Loleta chuckled and petted the snake's head.

"True enough. Here, lovey, look in there. There might be a mousy thing in there for you." Viola slithered to the open bag of Every-Flavour Beans and stuck her head inside, rustling around. Viola didn't use her sense of smell to find mouse flavoured beans, she just ate anyone she fancied and left only the sardine and vomit flavoured ones.

"Eurgh, that's just weird," said Ginny. Viola was constricting a hapless chocolate frog when the train started slowing down. The train eventually stopped, and Ginny looked out the window. "We aren't there yet. Why have we stopped?"

"I don't know," said Loleta. The lights hummed and flickered out. "But by the standard laws of existence, when the train stops and the lights are out, we have a problem." She put her ear to the door and listened, hearing faint screams getting closer.

"Should we go out there?" asked Ginny timidly.

"I wouldn't. Get your wand out, though. Whatever it is, it's here very soon." The air around them seemed to prickle and stand at attention. Everything went oddly quiet, and the door opened. Loleta recognized the thing that entered the compartment for the moment it was there before her vision clouded. Just outside her own consciousness, she could hear Ginny whimpering for a while until the voices echoing in Loleta's head drowned her out. The first one belonged to her father.

_"I suppose it is too much to hope that you will stop filling her head with this witchcraft nonsense and let her be normal," he had said to her mother, his voice more distant and forbidding than it usually was._

"It is natural, you fool! She has magic, and so do I, and so does my entire family. You're just upset because she can be so much better than you and you wanted a nice demure thing that you could boss around," her mother had shot back.

"Maybe that's how it should be!"

"You pig. You look at her as if she were beneath you just because she has something that you don't."

"This isn't just about her, Isabella! You married me without even telling me the tiny detail that you are some unnatural creature! And don't even get me started on your mother, that manipulative old bag!"

"I left my mother's people to marry you, doesn't that tell you anything? Besides, the reason I couldn't tell you about being a witch is because I knew you'd react like this. I thought I could live without magic, but it's like losing a leg. Don't you understand the sacrifices I've made here?"

"What about our daughter? Why can't she give up magic? Why can't she just be normal? I can't live like this, with you two making potions or whatnot."

"Don't be stupid. My daughter will go to Hogwarts when she turns eleven, and you don't need to be there. If the fact that me and my daughter have power bothers you so much, just leave," Isabella said boldly.

"Fine. I'll let you and the girl turn things into frogs if you like. Don't come crying to me when she turns out to be a stubborn pill just like you." At this point, her father had stormed out of the kitchen, finally noticing that an eight-year-old Loleta had been listening from around the corner. He just sighed, made no apologies, and left.

Back in the present, Loleta opened her eyes and saw that the dementor was gone. Ginny's face was tearstained and she was sobbing. Loleta shivered. She had locked that particular moment in her life away for a long time, and it didn't feel good to think about it again. She shoved the image of her father's exasperated face down again and shook Ginny.

"Hey, Ginny. Should we be changing into school robes yet?"

Ginny snapped back to reality and nodded. "Yeah. Robes are good." Loleta put the black robe over her jeans and shirt, noticing that Ginny's had a crest embroidered on them. She supposed that she would get her own when she was sorted. The train slowed down into Hogsmeade station, and Loleta pulled out the appropriate letter.

_Dear Loleta,_

Now is the time to think more about being Sorted. You know about the houses, so one doesn't need to worry about giving you more information there. I'm not sure how they will sort you when you are sixteen, but try not to be nervous, or at least don't show it. Now that you're in Hogsmeade, get a good look around while you can. If you can see past the candy shop and all that, you have a chance of finding a really interesting place. One very important thing to know is that you will want a place to go to be alone. You can use it to avoid people or keep things away from prying eyes. Hogsmeade is a good place to look if you are willing to chance being caught out of bounds or good enough to never be caught. And yes, I am encouraging you to break the rules. You'll find that all the successful and interesting types didn't click their heels together and play nice all the time. This is yet another reason that Slytherins become truly great as a rule.

Tu abuela, Esperanza Corlito De L'Orage

Loleta looked around her. All she could see were people, and they all seemed to know where they were going. "What do I do now?" she asked Ginny.

"Just follow me. We can get a car with my brothers, probably." Ginny looked around and caught sight of red hair near one carriage and went to it. It turned out to belong to a pair of twins. "Fred, George, mind if we join you?" she asked. One of the twins, Loleta couldn't tell which, spoke up.

"Not at all, our kid. Who's your friend, and why have we not seen her around?"

Loleta smiled at them both. "Loleta Tilev, fifth year, house undecided." The twins both shook her hands.

"Here's hoping you're in Gryffindor," said the other one. Ginny smiled slyly at Loleta and rolled her eyes. They got in the carriage and it started trundling up to the lighted castle.


	2. Chapter 2

* * *

  


Loleta had bid the assorted Weasleys goodbye and stared around the entrance hall, wondering where to go next. Everyone looked very full of purpose and in a hurry, rushing towards what she supposed would be the Great Hall for food. As the corridor emptied around her, Loleta was beginning to feel a little desperate, until a low, far-away voice interrupted her.

"Good evening. It is lovely to see you outside of the Orb at last." Loleta looked at the speaker incredulously. She looked like a crazy grandmother, though Loleta was very relieved not to have one of _those_ grandmothers; the kind that reads your palm, has Liberace's dress sense and too many cats, and gets teary-eyed when you mention tuna because of the poor dolphins.

"I see great potential for the Sight in you," she added with a watery smile. "I am Sybill Trelawney, the Divination professor."

Loleta smiled uneasily and nodded. Her inner bullshit barometer was screaming at her to get away from this woman before her intelligence was sucked away. Professor Trelawney didn't seem to notice that she wasn't answering and continued.

"I am to take you to the Headmaster's office, where you will be Sorted." She looked expectantly at Loleta for a reaction.

"Okay..." said Loleta slowly, trying to keep the worst of the sarcasm out of her voice. "Are we going there now?" Trelawney blinked, her eyes magnified by her enormous glasses.

"Oh, yes, of course," she said, gliding away as if she were a misguided transvestite on wheels. Or a huge, glittering vacuum cleaner. Loleta got the sudden, inescapable image of pushing Trelawney across a dirty floor and giggled. "What was that?" asked Trelawney.

"Nothing."

Trelawney hummed and continued talking about the intricacies of her subject, turning corners suddenly and nodding gravely to passing ghosts (who gave Loleta an odd turn at first) until she stopped at a large stone gargoyle. Loleta half-expected her to start prattling on about the gargoyle's tormented soul and was surprised to hear her say only two words.

"Jelly Slugs," said Trelawney dreamily. The gargoyle saluted and moved to reveal a spiral staircase. Loleta raised her eyebrows, impressed. Whosever idea that little trick was sure knew how to work the grandeur. Trelawney glided ahead of her, her sequined skirt making small clicking noises on the stone.

They reached a large, circular room, lined with portraits of previous headmasters and headmisstresses. A brilliant red bird that Loleta recognized as a phoenix was sleeping in the corner, head tucked into his vermillion wing. Loleta couldn't help but coo softly and move closer. She was probably the biggest pushover for animals ever to walk the earth. It didn't help that she spent half her time at home around unfairly adorable baby goats. The phoenix woke up and cocked its head at her.

"Oh, aren't you a sweet boy," said Loleta, in a more nauseating tone than she would ever admit to uttering. She petted him and smiled rather stupidly. "I bet you're a smart one, aren't you honey-muffin?"

"Hello, Miss Tilev. I see you have met Fawkes." Loleta spun around, embarrassed. An old, silver-haired man that she assumed was the headmaster smiled kindly at her.

"Sibyll?" he said to Trelawney, who looked nearly catatonic. "You may return to your tower now." Trelawney snapped out of the zombie-like daze she had been in, nodded to the headmaster, and drifted away.

"I am Professor Dumbledore, Miss Tilev. Your grandmother has been keeping correspondence with me concerning you, and is of the mind that you will be more than ready for a fifth year education here. Before you can begin, of course, you must be Sorted." He walked over to a shelf and pulled a ragged hat down. "Try this on." Loleta took the hat and put it on her head. It barely fit over her hair. Loleta jumped as the little voice started to speak in her ear.

"What's this? I thought the Sorting was over for the year. No? Oh well, it's a shame you didn't get to hear the song. Anyway, let's see what's in your noodle. Hmmm, older than usual. Transfer? I see...It seems your grandmother went here, Esperanza, her name was. And a Slytherin, I remember her. It's nice really, having a little more time to look inside. The ceremony's become so rushed lately, I sometimes have to guess, but don't tell anyone. Anyway, you wouldn't fit in in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, you only work when it suits you. How do you feel about Gryffindor?" _Not very good,_ thought Loleta.

"Really? I suppose you haven't ever had to be very brave, nor ruthless, so I suppose you could learn to be either way...Are you sure? Let it be SLYTHERIN!" Loleta smiled. Dementors, accent barriers, and Seer-wannabes aside, this had been a successful night. Her heart skipped happily as her black robes were adorned with her House crest.

* * *

Loleta walked anxiously behind the forbidding, saturnine man who Dumbledore had introduced as Professor Snape, her House head and Potions master. There hadn't been much talking; he wasn't the outgoing type and Loleta didn't care to push a man who was already in a poisonous mood. She wondered idly if he was always going to be so irritable. They walked by suits of armor, portraits with moving, whispering occupants, and descended myriad staircases until the walls started to become damp. Loleta breathed in the musty air and ventured a question.

"Where are we going?" she asked mildly. Snape looked around at her.

"Your common room, Miss Tilev. One hopes you will adjust to Hogwarts and Slytherin House quickly and refrain from asking silly questions."

Loleta whistled to herself. _Maybe if you ran your back up against a wall, you could shove that splintering pole farther up your-,_ she thought mutinously.

"We are here," said Snape, breaking off her thoughts. They were facing a blank stone wall. "Runespoor." The wall opened to show a low archway. Snape beckoned for Loleta to walk through first.

_That would almost be gentlman-like_, she thought, _if he didn't look like he had been forced to stuff rat placenta in his ears while he was doing it._

She smiled graciously and started to walk in, but Snape stopped her. "Welcome to Slytherin. The moment you walk through that door, I demand that you be a credit to your house or you will regret ever having set foot on this soil. I am pleased that you have the potential to be a Slytherin, as most transfer students inevitably get Sorted into Gryffindor with...Potter." He spat the last word, and Loleta took down what seemed to be a very important mental note; never, under any circumstances laud Harry Potter in front of Professor Snape, unless you are being sarcastic and cruel enough for even the dimmest Hufflepuff first year to notice. When Snape looked at her expectantly for a response, she realised that he was trying to wish her good luck.

"Thank you very much," she said, and bowed her head slightly for a touch of overwrought, flattering respect. Snape seemed satisfied enough to walk back the way he came. Loleta turned back to the open archway and breathed deeply. Some newfound instinct told her that in this situation, any Slytherin worth their green and silver would not skulk in this situation. She tried to envision her grandmother's start-of-term strutting walk that she would have employed in her situation. Loleta tipped her chin up and fiddled with her hair a little.

"Stop preening, you haven't got all night," croaked a suit of armor underneath a torch. Loleta stared. This would definitely take some getting used to. She let out the breath she had been holding and walked through the archway.

Her first impression of Slytherin house was that of faded grandeur and pride, which she supposed suited it quite well, due to the unfortunate reputation that she had noticed seemed to hang around Slytherin. The chairs that the incumbents were sitting on were faded from a dark green to nearly white in some places. Loleta felt a little lick of indignation that Slytherin had been neglected like this, as if even the proud ones had started believing that they were exactly what all the others thought they were; lying, cheating, conniving, untrustworthy, evil bastards who should never be given the benefit of the doubt or allowed out of one's sight. The current people in the common room didn't seem to mind, they were laughing and joking with friends. It took them a few seconds to notice that Loleta was even there.

When they did, there was a calculating silence and some surreptitious nudging until one of their number stood up, a blond girl who appeared to be about her age. She walked over, proud and wary at the same time and with the grace of your average unicorn. Loleta groaned inwardly. She would have to talk and move soon, and that could lead to misunderstandings and severe bruises. The blond girl met her eyes and held out her hand.

"Alla Solarian," she said in a neutral tone. "You would be a transfer?" Loleta nodded.

"Yes, Loleta Tilev, I'll be in fifth year here." Alla smiled slightly.

"You'll be sharing a dorm with me and one other girl, then. We'd heard a rumour that a transfer was coming through, and those usually end up in Gryffindor. It's all that 'honesty and nobility' drivel that reels them in, really. Come on." She led Loleta to a worn spiral staircase and started to walk upwards.

"Thanks for saving me from any more uncomfortable silences," said Loleta. Alla laughed, and it echoed through the narrow passageway.

"No problem at all. They can be vicious, even the little ones. I'll help you out until you can shut any enemies up by yourself. Color me altruistic, I suppose," Alla said breezily. "Where are you from? If I know my accents, yours is either very southern French, Italian, or Corsican, even. Am I right?"

"Southern French, nearer to Italy than Paris. You're good," said Loleta, amazed. Alla grinned proudly.

The air in the tunnel seemed to get warmer, until Loleta was sure that they were above ground again. "Here we are. The dwelling of me, you and the verifiably insane." They had stopped on a landing, where a torch leaked pitch on the floor and a copper snake was fixed on the wall in the shape of a coiled number five. Alla opened the heavy door, explaining that they hadn't had the chance to put wards on it yet. The room itself was grey stone with three large, green canopied beds, bedside tables, and three imposing wardrobes. There was also a girl with pale red hair lounging on the bed closest to the door.

"Hey, Alla, I was wondering when you were going to return from the amazing Malfoy-infested cesspool-" she stopped short of her tirade. "Who's that?"

"This is Loleta Tilev, our new roommate. Freshly rescued from the cesspool. Loleta, this is Charlotte Donovan, the certifiably insane one," said Alla, taking her hair down and putting the hairpins into a carved box.

"Isn't that why everyone at least knows who I am?" said Charlotte sweetly. "And call me Charley, please. The primary school in my town made us read E.B. White. It is too traumatising to think of myself as a spider."

"Much less a dead spider, I suppose," said Loleta, surprised that Charley had read Muggle books. Charley looked thoughtful.

"Yeah, kind of sad, really. Then again, I would rather be dead than spelling 'Some Pig' out with web that I literally pulled out of my arse. Not to mention the situation with all those babies at the end." Charley shuddered theatrically. "Anyway, the bed next to the window is all yours." Loleta was pleased to find that her trunk and ventilated box had been transported to the room and was at the foot of the bed. Loleta put Viola's box on her bed and opened her trunk to unpack.

"What's in the box? Better not be a spider, or Charley will kill it." Alla had walked up to Loleta's bed and was peering curiously at the box. Loleta smiled mischeviously.

"This room's new unofficial guard-pet." She pulled the lid off and lifted Viola out. Alla and Charley gasped in mutual astonishment.

"That's...interesting."

"Whew, girlie. Aren't you a Slytherin and a half?" Loleta grinned.

"Yeah, she's very...pink, isn't she," she said with pride. Alla was the first to return to a serious tone of voice.

"Everyone is going to think you are the Voldemort's lost heiress or at least tangentially related, you know." Loleta shrugged.

"Last I checked, she was just a boa constrictor with enough runespoor in her to give her two lumps where the heads should be and enough smarts to figure out the gist of whatever is going on. She even passed the Ginny Weasley non-evil test, and if anyone's paranoid and shell-shocked, it's her."

"Made friends with some Weasleys, have you?" asked Alla amusedly. "They can be a good sort. Fred and George are not someone you would want to turn your back on, though."

"So I've heard." Loleta sat down on her bed as she noticed that Alla and Charley were switching to valuable advice-mode.

"One big thing you want to watch out for with them," said Charley ominously, "is when you only see one. When you only see one of the interchangable FredGeorge, the other is probably behind you with something slimy, embarrassing, or with too many legs." Loleta listened raptly. If her grandmother's letters were good lessons in Hogwarts philosophy and essentials, then Alla and Charley were a mine for the tiny details that made life easier.

For one thing, Loleta didn't want to be on the wrong end of Fred or George's more slimy or partially-transfigurating pranks. She made a mental note to make very good friends with them, or just stay out of the way. Ginny could help me there too, she mused. The conversation with Alla and Charley had moved into the area of how to sneak out of bed at night and not get caught. Loleta listened closely to all the hiding places and tricks one could use to avoid the caretaker, Filch. Once the speeches on not getting caught were finished ("or if you do get caught, make sure it's Snape. He'll barely even chew you out," Charley pointed out.), Loleta brought up the subject of winning points.

_Note to self_, thought Loleta after a few minutes of observations on favoritism,_ points easily won in Potions for the most mediocre efforts._

Charley kept on talking long after Alla had dissappeared through a semi-concealed door for her nighttime grooming, mostly about how to behave around certain teachers, proper Quidditch rules and how to break them without Madam Hooch seeing, and the most popular games to play with the giant squid in the lake. When the conversation turned to the use of personal power and charm, Charley became as opinionated as she was knowledgable.

"The key is to have confidence," she said. "That may sound cliched, but it is true. You see Hufflepuff and Gryffindor girls who are not unfortunate, but they don't get noticed at all. Do you know why?" Loleta tried to think of supposed Gryffindor bravery and reconcile it with Charley's comments. She gave up.

"No, why?"

"Because they act like they're not pretty. They just wander through life, head down, hair flat, thinking that they are too average to be noticed. This is untrue. They may not be radiant part-veelas, like our Alla, but then again, neither am I. Do I despair? Not a chance. I put on a short skirt and flaunt what I've got. You see?" Loleta nodded. She was starting to understand Charley's gist.

"So, even though I may have the hair that wouldn't listen and a huge arse, I still can have the advangtage if I believe that I am heartbreakingly gorgeous?"

Alla, having returned, mumbled something into her pillow that could have been 'and so modest!'

"Exactly," said Charley. "Just like I have bony knees and arms. And it doesn't hurt that we Slytherins have a sort of underground following. All the nice boys who don't want to admit that the name Slytherin has some taboo appeal piled on over all the negative connotations. And it isn't unfair that we use our advantages for the purpose of say...pulling the guy that all the girls want. It's not our fault they don't have the trademark Slyth sex appeal or enough chutzpah to pull off their looks."

"Taboo appeal. Got it. Where do I put all my toilettage?" asked Loleta. Charley pointed her to some cabinets in the bathroom, and informed her that they shared it with the third year girls, before going to sleep herself.

Loleta sat in bed, reading the letter intended for after her Sorting.

_Dear Loleta,_

I'm not going to pretend that I haven't figured out that you are a Slytherin yet. There really was no other feasible direction. This will be a relatively short letter, but do not neglect the words in it. As a Slytherin, people will never completely trust you. This is not altogether unfair, but that is the price one pays for being superior. But a few rules remain, learn them well. Never expect altruism from anyone other than your closest friends; even your housemates will stab you in the back. Never try to fish for approval from anyone but yourself. Other Houses do not matter. They will want to drag you down, make their House's stars seem better than yours because you are a Slytherin. Slytherin is hated for a reason, and it's not just jealousy. Fear is also there. Everyone is afraid of you, because you have power. Let me rephrase that, though. Every witch or wizard has power, but the Slytherins are the ones who make it go far. Your Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, they will hold back because they are too 'noble' or because they 'don't care about winning as long as everyone's happy.' Never be afraid of yourself just because other people are.

Tu abuela, Esperanza Corlito De L'Orage, Slytherin alumnus and damn proud.

  


* * *


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: The HP universe is not mine, but we all knew that. I'm not making any money, hence the dry Top Ramen I'm eating for lunch. There's something else I wanted to say here, but I forgot, so go ahead and read.

The next morning, Loleta awoke with Alla's cat sitting on her head and purring like lawnmower.

"What the hell?" she mumbled. She sat up, dislodging the cat and groaning. Charley pulled the bed covers and grinned.

"Rise and shine, little lady! Breakfast is soon!" Loleta grunted and pulled off the covers. She opened her trunk and pulled out a pair of socks and a wrinkled white shirt.

"Are you guys going to wear pants?" she asked.

"Not on your life," said Alla. "First day, we show off our summer legs, tanned or no. And Charley...she always shows off her legs." She joined Loleta in looking through her clothes. "As for shoes, I'd try the black heeled loafers. Casual, but classy."

"Thanks, but if I wore a skirt every day, wouldn't people get used to the sight of legs?"

"Do what I do!" yelled Charley from the washroom doorway. "When you have a special occasion to look good, wear a shorter skirt." Another voice sounded from the washroom.

"You mean they make them shorter than that one, Donovan?" said a sneering voice. Loleta figured it was one of the third-years that they shared the washroom with.

"Sure they do, they just are in a shop that's magically hidden from people like you, Parkinson?"

"What are you talking about, I'm pure-blooded as anyone here!" Loleta perked up her ears. If that mattered so much, she had a problem. She moved into the washroom and saw Charley applying makeup with an amused expression on her face, while a girl with a squashy nose and a slight case of Hapsburg jaw scowled at her.

"That's true, Pansy darling, but it doesn't change the fact that you're only a sight for legally blind or otherwise impaired eyes." It was a low blow, but Loleta had to admit that Charley had a point. As if Pansy could read her thoughts, she turned her incensed glare towards Loleta.

"Who're you?" she asked venomously.

"Loleta Asli Tilev, and if you have a problem with that or with any of my friends, you can kiss my brown arse." Given Charley's apparent disdain and the general first impression that Loleta got off Pansy Parkinson, it seemed that hostility was in order. Pansy sniffed and walked out a door that led to her dormitory. Charley smirked.

"Nice. She needs to hear that twice a day, every week, and for all her life. She is definitely a taunt-worthy target, but most other people in this house need some finesse. Passive-aggressive is the name of the game."

"Got it. What's the policy on bringing pets to breakfast?"

"If it's small, fine. But carrying a big honkin' snake around is no way to endear yourself to people."

"As I understand it," said Loleta, smoothing lotion onto her arms, "being a Slytherin doesn't make one popular either."

"Yeah, you'd think that with our social disadvantage that we'd stick together more. But, as you can see with Parkinson, that is not the case."

"Come on, you two," said Alla exasperatedly. "If we're late, we won't get good seats." Loleta wondered where they were going in the first place. The notion that there was a gigantic castle that she knew nothing about except how to get to the Headmaster's office and her dorm. She took note of every landmark and distinction she could see in the halls on the way to breakfast. A few of the portraits greeted her amiably. One figure sitting in a painting of the Greek gods and goddesses didn't look like any of the deities that Loleta could remember.

It did seem strange that a pale, black-clad woman with an ankh on her necklace should be peering curiously at her from the lush rendering of the Olympian gods. It seemed like a trivial thing to mention to Charley and Alla, so Loleta didn't bring it up. It was pushed straight out of her mind by the sight of the Great Hall. The hall was decorated with hangings in House colours and a few odd portraits on the walls. At the head of the hall, the teachers sat watching the students. Loleta recognized Professor Snape glaring with contempt at another person at the High Table.

She followed his gaze to Professor Lupin, who was either unaware of the death glare Snape was shooting at him, or was just ignoring it. He looked up from calmly buttering his toast to give Loleta an encouraging smile. She nodded back and followed Charley and Alla to the Slytherin table and settled between them. She looked around at her neighbours. She recognized Pansy, and shot her a sunny smile with an obvious subtext along the lines of 'you are a heinous brat.' The others were complete strangers. She started mentally sizing them up to see which one she could start talking to, when a boy across from her cleared his throat.

"Transfer?" he asked in a thick Scottish brogue. _Not the only one with funny accent, definitely a good thing,_ she thought, relieved.

"Yeah, from France. Loleta Tilev."

"Will McKellar. Did you go to Beauxbatons?" he asked, pouring syrup onto waffles already festooned with berries.

"No, my mother taught me. Reason I'm here is that she had to relearn the material from what would be fourth year last year, and didn't want to do it again. So my grandmother pulled some strings and got me transferred here. She was in Slytherin too."

"You picked a tough year to transfer. O.W.L.s can be brutal. Anyway, at least you have Slyth relatives. Mine are and were all Gryffindors or Hufflepuffs. I'm quite the aberration." He smiled, but it was a guarded one. Loleta chewed her toast thoughtfully. She'd seen the looks that Alla, Charley and her had gotten in the corridors on the way here, suspicious and wary, like they might draw their wands and kill everyone at any time. To have your family think of you that way, even subconsciously, had to be frustrating and awkward.

"That sounds less than fun," she said finally.

"Christmases are chock full of uncomfortable silences," Will confided. "But they still don't let me stay here for them.

"Have you got any relatives here now?" asked Loleta.

"Yeah, my little brother. He's in Gryffindor, a second year. Little Greg McKellar used to look up to me, but now he doesn't even talk to me. Not even to ask a favor. I'm in sixth year, I could do all his homework and mine and still have free time. I would, too, if he would just talk to me." A flicker of sadness crossed his eyes, and Loleta felt like marching over to the Gryffindor table and giving little Greg a piece of her mind. He wasn't hard to spot, he looked for all the world exactly like a younger, shorter Will, with the same brown hair and thin shoulders. Will seemed to notice her looking purposefully at his brother and hastily changed the subject.

"So, did you hear about that Sirius Black escaping?" Loleta nodded and looked away.

"Yeah, but who's he trying to get at?" she asked. Alla, who had been half-listening to their conversation, joined in.

"My Dad reckons he's after Harry Potter. Glad I'm not a Gryffindor now, it'd be quite dangerous."

"Harry Potter...Boy Who Lived, right? Defeated what's-his-face when he was a baby?"

"That's the one," said Charley bitterly. "And that didn't sit well with Black. If Black can get in here, Potter and some of his mates might just get what some people reckon is coming to them."

"What did he do to brass you off, Charley?" asked Loleta.

"Just the same thing as everyone else, assumed that we are all evil incarnate just because," Alla lowered her voice. "Because some members of Slytherin House..."

"Malfoy," said Will quietly.

"Yes, that one. Anyway, they go around like they own everyone and Slytherin means brats with Death Eater parents and getting what you want." Alla scowled.

"Isn't that what we do, though?" asked Loleta thoughtfully. "Get what we want, when we want it?"

"Yeah, but real Slyths get what they want without their daddy buying it for them. Mostly," muttered Charley.

"If you get wind that Potter got some privilege or another from anyone, you can see the almost weekly show of Malfoy stomping his feet and whinging in the Common Room," added Will.

"So, Malfoy's a brat, and Potter has Maenads to throw rose petals at his feet for something he did when he was a baby and thinks Slyth equals scum, and it's all this 'Dark Lord's' fault?"

"Actually, Loleta, what you've just said quite succinctly is what most of Slytherin's current complaints boil down to."

* * *

The first lesson for the Slytherin fifth years was Defence Against The Dark Arts. Professor Lupin looked mildly surprised to see the Slytherin badge on Loleta's robes. She bristled inwardly, feeling very defensive all the sudden. Throughout the entire lesson, she couldn't help but feel as if she was under more pressure to prove herself. Her worries were met with sympathy from Alla when she confided as much.

"Of course you have to work harder to prove yourself. If everyone wants to think you're manipulative and conniving, then it's really hard to make them think otherwise, if at all. You get used to it or you give up altogether and do what everyone thinks that we're all about. Don't worry too much, I'm here to help. And so is Will McKellar, it seems." Alla raised her eyebrows and subtly gestured toward him. "He's got a small female following, you're a lucky girl to get him to open up so easily."

"Please, Alla. I do not fancy him. He's just the first guy who talked to me, and he seems nice."

"Sure," drawled Alla. "Then some lonely, cold weekend, you'll find yourself alone in the Common Room with him and a few butterbeers, and we'll so who are just friends and who are not."

"I get this terrible feeling that you can and will orchestrate this," whispered Loleta. She noticed that she had stopped taking notes on Ashwinders somewhere along the way and hurried to catch up while Alla chuckled throatily.

"You bet your arse I can. I don't know if I will...And if I do, you won't know until it's too late."

"Fabulous," muttered Loleta sarcastically. She thought about being caught in that kind of situation with a few people, before she remembered Percy Weasley. Then she remembered how Gryffindors and Slytherins didn't mix that way, and he was taken anyway. She scowled. He wasn't all that attractive anyway. Besides, Will McKinnon was a lot more friendly. Alla's little plan was starting to look more viable by the second.

* * *

As the fifth year Slytherin class left the DADA room, the second year Gryffindor one was waiting in the hall. Loleta picked out Ginny Weasley immediately and was blank on what to say, if anything. It was easy enough to say that they could stay friends in rival Houses, but the situation was far more awkward than she had foreseen. Ginny was surrounded by a group of tittering girls, but looked Loleta's way anyway. They locked eyes and nodded, but Ginny didn't seem comfortable speaking either. Loleta felt another worry settle on her shoulders. What if she couldn't keep any friends outside of Slytherin? She like Charley and Alla and Will so far, but still...

"Miss Tilev, a word before you leave?" said Lupin from his desk. Alla and Charley exchanged glances and left the room with wild speculation etched all over their faces.

"Yes, sir?" she asked warily. Lupin smiled benevolently.

"You're not in trouble, I just want to ask a few questions. Are you settling in well at Hogwarts?"

"Yes..." _Where is this going?_ wondered Loleta.

"Are you happy with where you've been sorted?" he asked. Loleta raised an eyebrow critically.

"Yes, I am," she said, almost defiantly. Lupin smiled.

"I'm glad for you, I just know it can be hard to be in Slytherin, especially when you don't have any family to ally with and have to start late here." _That was unexpected,_ thought Loleta.

"Were you a Slytherin, sir?" she asked.

"No, I was a Gryffindor, but it's amazing what you can learn just by watching people. After all these years of it, I'd indulge myself so much as to think I have an idea of what makes Slytherins tick. One thing that seems to be important is who you ally yourself with, and I am happy to see that you are successful thus far."

"Er, thanks for taking an interest," said Loleta awkwardly.

"Anytime you need help, just find me or another teacher. They're just as concerned as I am, not the least because your grandmother is a pivotal player in our North American contacts. But unless I'm mistaken, my next class is anxious to start. Have a good day." Loleta nodded and walked briskly out to find Alla and Charley giggling madly, until Charley launched into a torrent of questions.

"What did he say? Do you fancy him? Does he fancy you? Any after-hours detentions?" When Loleta just looked at her blankly and didn't say anything, she exulted.

"Your silence tells all!" she yelled, ignoring the looks she was getting, and launched into the chorus of 'Hot For Teacher.' Loleta was half-embarrassed and half-amazed at Charley's impressive grasp of American pop culture.

"Charley, let the girl get a word in!" admonished Alla. "Is there any, erm, extra homework to be done?"

"No, you idiots. He was just wondering how well life as a new Slyth was going. For an ex-Gryffindor, he's pretty sharp about what's important to us."

"Really?" said Charley in an interested tone. "He seems like a decent catch, then. Gryffindor enough to manipulate easily, but Slyth enough to understand us. He does look awfully sickly though....You can make him chicken soup!"

"What in the hell is she rambling about?" Loleta asked Alla. Alla shrugged.

"I don't think even she knows. Just smile and nod until she's done."

* * *

Herbology with the Ravenclaws went smoothly enough. There was one harrowing event when the Venomous Tentacula got a hold of Alla's robes and she ended up having to use her wand like a cattle prod to get it off. The Ravenclaws seemed a lot more indifferent towards the Slytherins, but as Charley pointed out afterwards, they tended to side against Slytherin if it came down to that. As they were walking back from the greenhouses, Loleta brought up a question that had been nagging at her mind.

"So if there are all these disadvantages to being a Slytherin, what are the advantages?" Charley and Alla proved very outspoken once again.

"Well, we went over the 'taboo appeal' last night, but our biggest advantage is that with all the pressure and prejudice that gets flung our way, we end up way better for it in the real world," said Charley confidently.

"Interesting, explain."

"Thing is," added Alla. "The Hufflepuffs, for example, end up learning that they should work to please other people and make them happy. Same with the Gryffindors, they're always told that there's no 'I' in team and all that. The Ravenclaws end up mostly believing that book smarts will get you everywhere. They end up as doormats in the case of the Huffs, either completely overlooked or really famous to the point where no one else gets the attention for the Gryffs, or at a boring research job at the Ravenclaw end. Since we know how to use every advantage and not care if someone doesn't like us, we prevail." Loleta nodded.

"Sounds good. I think I've had enough Slythology for one day though."

"There's not much else to talk about in the end," said Alla morosely. "Since other people identify us as Slytherins rather than individual people, we end up doing the same. Once you leave here, it's harder to let go of your House pride if you're one of us because it's what you've got." A long silence followed this. Alla looked introspective and a little frustrated, and Loleta felt the same way.

"There's no I in team, sure," said Charley. "But there is an I at the center of every win. Did you ever notice that?"

"Enough deep thoughts from you," Loleta ordered. "I'm hungry."

"Well, I've got one Slytherin advantage that benefits us all right now," said Charley slyly.

"What's that?"

"Alla, explain," commanded Charley.

"You see, we Slytherins love to explore every advantage possible. Knowledge of say, secret passages in the castle is one thing that everyone can enjoy. Secret passages that lead to, for example, High Street in Hogsmeade, where we can purchase food and drink for resale to students who wouldn't know of such a passage, and also enjoy the benefits of regular trips to the beauty shop in town, thus increasing our 'taboo appeal.'"

"You're saying that you two nutjobs know a way to get to that village thingy without official permission?" asked Loleta disbelievingly.

"Damn right we do, and no one else knows about this one. Not even Filch." Loleta grimaced at the mention of the caretaker. His very presence made her feel like she was doing something reprehensible.

"What doesn't Filch know about?" asked Will, walking up to them from his Care of Magical Creatures class.

"Nothing of consequence," said Loleta smoothly, fluttering her eyelashes in an attempt to distract him. He gave her a look that clearly said that it would take more than that to deter him.

"Don't try that, I wasn't born yesterday. You know something, and I'll find out someday."

"Will, Will, let us have our secrets," sighed Charley, inspecting her nails. Talk of the Hogsmeade beauty parlor had got her to thinking about her manicure.

"For now, ladies. But I'll have it out of one of you." He looked meaningfully at them and walked ahead of them.

"He is a rare gem in a lackluster family," said Charley fervently. "You should go for it, Loleta."

"Shut it," warned Loleta. "I'm not shopping for a boyfriend here."

"So what are you going to do?" asked Charley raptly. "Just walk around all raven locks and dark eyes until the male population of Hogwarts would gladly throw themselves off the Astronomy Tower for you, yet stay alone?"

"Um, yes?"

"You'll be taking a leaf out of Alla's book, then. She has been keeping everyone on tenterhooks for years, waiting to see who the poor sap is."

"It's great fun, messing with their heads," said Alla, rolling her eyes. "Despite the inevitable exaggeration that goes on whenever Charlotte Donovan opens her mouth." Charley pouted for a moment, then gave up and started humming 'Hot For Teacher' again.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Ooooh, I just read through the last chapter and winced all the way. Please, for the love of Saint Bridget, tell me when I screw up like that! *cries* I really need a beta....

* * *

During the break between classes, Alla and Charley collapsed in a torchlit alcove near the dungeon stairway. Loleta followed suit, finally realising how tired she was as she sat down heavily.

"I could kill Hagrid," said Charley fervently. "That bloody book, who in their right mind?"

"Darling, you're making the mistake of thinking that Hagrid is anywhere near in his right mind. He probably traded his common sense for a winged leopard," said Alla, massaging her temples.

"They make winged leopards?" asked Loleta, checking her schedule to see if their next class was labor-intensive. History of Magic. She sighed with relief inwardly. The way the other two told it, History of Magic just required a hand to hold a quill and a vacant expression.

"Not legally," replied Alla wryly. "But they're a sight less sensitive than Hippogriffs."

_I'd believe it,_ thought Loleta, noticing a head of vividly red hair coming down the hall. Ginny Weasley slowed down and locked eyes with Loleta, who beckoned her over. Ginny seemed heartened by the invitation and practically skipped over. It disturbed Loleta a little to notice that she had been surrounded by her chattering classmates, but no one even noticed her leave.

"Hi," she said, looking curiously at Alla and Charley.

"Hey, Gin. Sit down. Scoot over, you two," replied Loleta, shepherding the others out of the way. "This is Alla, the blond one, and that's Charley."

"Fellow redhead," said Charley, acknowledging Ginny.

"Well!" proclaimed Alla smoothly. "The youngest Weasley. Your brothers have been a plague to our existence at merry old Hogwarts for five years now. But they're not here right now, and you must be sick of being chalked up to them."

"No I don't really mind..." began Ginny, then she thought for a second. "Oh, who am I kidding?! Of course I am!" She looked surprised at her own outburst.

"I thought as much." Alla was surprised; idle family-related small-talk usually didn't turn into minor epiphanies. Then again, she wasn't used to the candid ways of Gryffindors. One thing was clear to her, though; Ginny Weasley needed a lot more attention than she was getting. The intense scrutiny caused Ginny to fidget slightly, so Charley broke the silence.

"Since you're here, love, talk to us. We know everything about your brothers, but no one really knows much about you, except that you're the seventh Weasley kid. And that doesn't tell us much."

By habit and experience, Ginny was wary of opening up to anyone. Then again, she could see very well where these three kept their brains, even if she couldn't always tell how and why the wheels were turning. Besides, Slytherin or no, they had shown more interest than anyone outside her mother....and a certain black diary, but she wasn't going there. She just had to make sure that she didn't tell them anything that personal.

"My name is Virginia Josephine Weasley. I am twelve years old. I like puzzles, figs, and Potions. I have six older brothers who between themselves know more about the layout of the school than Filch, but they don't ever share."

"Mmmmm, figs," said Loleta distractedly. Everyone else looked at her. "What, I've lived in France for half of my life!" she said indignantly. "If that doesn't make you love food, I don't know what will."

Ginny smiled. This beat tagging along after all her siblings by a long shot. She sat there, talking about whatever came up quite happily for the duration of the break. When she got up to leave, she noticed Ron and Harry looking at her very intently. The little leap of joy at getting some attention was swatted down when she noticed that he didn't look happy. Loleta and Charley didn't seem to see the familial tension building, but Alla glanced out of the corner of her eye at Ginny, with a tiny wink. Ginny imagined that she was Alla for a second and did her best to imitate the cool mien of the older girl.

"What?" she snapped at Ron, who looked stung. Harry just looked mildly surprised.

"How can you just say 'what?' You know what, Virginia Weasley!" Ron tried to sound stern, but just ended up sputtering ineffectually. Ginny cheered herself on inwardly.

"Well, since it's obviously bothering you much more than me, then I feel I can safely assume that this 'what?' is not my problem." Ouch, Gin, she thought to herself, wondering if just a short talk with the Slytherins had rubbed off on her already. She wasn't going to question it just now. She was on a roll.

"Ginny Weasley, I am your brother. I know you better than you know yourself, and you'd better listen to me-" Ginny rolled her eyes. Usually she would just let him continue this lecture, but she'd had enough. She drew herself up even taller, even though she would never reach Ron's height, and dropped her bag on the floor, and let some of Alla's froideur go in lieu of her own anger.

"You KNOW me? Who are my friends, Ron, hmm? What classes am I doing well in? Who do I fancy? What's my favorite food, you prat?" Satisfied with his shocked expression, Ginny stormed off to class. Ron stammered for a minute or so, and Harry looked after her bemusedly.

"Doesn't she fancy you?" he asked Harry. Harry shrugged.

"Dunno. We ought to get to class though."

"Class. Right."

* * *

Ginny spent the next class in a happy daze. She felt completely liberated. She resolved to ask Alla, Charley, and Loleta if putting people in their place like that always felt so good, and had a shiver of excitement. Even thinking 'the next time I see them' gave her a wonderful feeling of being interesting to people. She wondered if maybe she shouldn't have been a Slytherin after all...

* * *

"Hey, Alla?" whispered Loleta, looking nervously at Professor Binns to see if he'd notice. The ghost kept on with his monotonic lecture.

"Yeah?"

"How did you do that? Get Ginny to just talk like that?"

"We all have our own techniques in this house. Malfoy threatens and whines, Charley flirts, Snape does the sarcasm and intimidation and I just work the pop psych."

"Would you-"

"No, I won't share my secrets. Learn by doing there. Besides, I think I know what would work better on you." Alla checked over her shoulder to make sure that Binns was still oblivious. "You should work the 'worship-me-and-tell-me-everything-you-know' angle, especially since-" Alla was interuppted by a parchment ball hitting her head. She glared toward the direction it came from to see Will grinning at them and mouthing 'read it!' Alla glared again and opened it.

_What's this I hear about worshiping Loleta? New extra-curricular club, perhaps? Can I be president?_

Alla laughed quietly and passed the note to Loleta, who read it and chuckled in turn. She grabbed a quill and wrote her reply.

_Nothing official, but it's a free country. Adulation never discouraged. Wondering also how you managed to pick up a conversation from all the way over there. Share your secret, and maybe I'll declare you my acolyte in my capacity as goddess._

Loleta folded it neatly and whispered a charm to make the two halves flutter like wings and levitated it across the room. Will read it and smirked. Alla watched amusedly, as did Charley, who had just noticed the exchange. The reply was soon sent back over.

_Share your secrets first, love. What doesn't Filch know about?_

Loleta scribbled her reply and threw it over his way:

_Nice try. Maybe I'll let you come along blindfolded if you're a good acolyte._

Will was about to lob the note back over when class was dismissed. He came up to Loleta. Alla and Charley smiled wisely and moved ahead to the next class.

"Blindfold, eh? Intriguing. It seems that two Weasleys wish an audience with your grace, shall I ask them what they want?"

"As you will, Mr. McKellar." Will nodded and approached the Weasley twins, who had been eyeing Loleta with uncannily identical expressions of frustration.

"So, what are you two wishing to say to this fine lady?" Fred and George didn't answer him.

"How are things settling in?" asked Fred politely. The politeness put Loleta on her guard. The (in)famous Weasley twins were not to be underestimated or trusted, as she understood it.

"Fine, why ask?"

"Just wondering," chimed in George. "We figured we'd talk to you, as you've been very nice to our family so far and we have the next class together. So, what d'you know about Ginny's newfound attitude?"

_I refuse to go into this_, thought Loleta. Then she smiled, she had an idea.

"Look, if you want to talk to someone about your attitude problem towards Ginny, because it's not the other way around, talk to Alla." Loleta beckoned to Will, and they walked brusquely away.

"She might be mad at having to deal with them, you know," said Will. Loleta shrugged.

"Better her than me becomes any sort of wriggling animal."

"Aye, I suppose that's the general attitude towards Weasley Twin/Slytherin relations."

* * *

Later that night, Alla stormed into the dormitory.

"Ugh, Loleta, next time you saddle me with the Weasley twins, warn me or something."

"Why, did you eat anything they gave you?" asked Charley, applying a violently purple face masque.

"No, but they kept trying anyway. They were prattling on about Ginny yelling at Ron earlier. I only managed to get them away by saying that Filch was looking for them earlier."

"What have they done to Filch today?" asked Loleta. Alla smiled and shrugged.

"Couldn't tell you. But obviously something, because they practically sprinted away." She laughed. "If there's one thing you can count on with them, it's that they're up to something, or they're laying low because they've already done it."

"Do you ever need to ask anyone anything, or can you just read minds?" wondered Charley aloud, not for the first time in the five years she'd known Alla.

"Judging by what I know of your character and the events of the day, including the impromptu song and dance, I'd say that you're considering the benefits of an illicit affair with Professor Lupin," Alla retorted, unbraiding her complicated hairdo and letting it fall down around her shoulders. Charley smiled in a rather strained way, cracking her purple face mask.

"Alla, what makes you think I would even consider such a thing?" Even Viola, curled up on Loleta's pillow looked at Charley sarcastically.

"Charley, I've known you less than 72 hours and I have to say; Your love for the male of the species makes Catherine the Great look like a nun," said Loleta earnestly. Charley nodded for a second.

"Yeah, that's fair. But at least I'm not the one going 'I'm not shopping for a boyfriend' then making eyes at Will McKellar," argued Charley with a good imitation of Loleta's accent.

"We never said anything about 'boyfriend.' I may not be wanting the romance and gossip, but I wouldn't say no to a snog on a cold night with a good-looking boy like that," said Loleta, who grinned at Charley's smirk and Alla's bemused half-smile.

After Alla had fallen asleep two hours later, Charley spoke up again.

"Hey, Loleta?"

"Yeah?"

"About what you said."

"What?"

"What's the point in pulling someone as fawned-over as Will McKellar if you don't get to gloat in public?"

Loleta laughed into her pillow. "Go to sleep, you silly girl. Life's not all about getting what you want and rubbing it in everyone's face. Sometimes it's just getting what you want."


End file.
